Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Iowa State Bank’s 5th Largest Position

Iowa State Bank grew its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 51,167 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,155 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for 3.1% of Iowa State Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Iowa State Bank’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $12,271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 19.9% during the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 14,342 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,422,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its holdings in Microsoft by 20.8% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,138,469 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $351,001,000 after buying an additional 196,338 shares in the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 1.2% in the first quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 12,712 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 16.2% in the first quarter. Powell Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,578 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Microsoft by 8.2% in the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,782 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CMO Christopher C. Capossela sold 1,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Monday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.32, for a total transaction of $272,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 116,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,687,699.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 788,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,272,990. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,767 shares of company stock worth $1,728,111. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $296.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 10th. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Guggenheim cut shares of Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 17th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.05.

Microsoft Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of MSFT opened at $279.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s fifty day moving average is $252.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.43. Microsoft Co. has a fifty-two week low of $213.43 and a fifty-two week high of $315.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The software giant reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $52.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.17 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 33.05% and a return on equity of 39.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 30.22%.

About Microsoft

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.